Aluminum cans aren’t the only thing Breweries Be Recycling. Increasingly, beer brewers make fruit beer With previously fermented fruits like blackberries and peaches, as well as compact grape skins and stems, this turns the waste into beer you’ll want to drink over and over again.
Part of the trend’s popularity can be traced back to the increased interest in piquet. It is a rustic French technique of converting the pomace – the rind, pulp, and stems left after squeezing the grapes for wine – into a low-alcohol beverage, similar to wine, fizzy, fruity, and often only about 5 percent ABV. This method is preferred by many natural winemakers, and “We get a lot of inspiration from what’s going on in this world,” says Jake Guidry, Hopewell Brewing’s brand manager.
Neon’s brewery’s Chicago chain of sour beer features massive amounts of fruits like cherries, raspberries, and blueberries. At first Hopewell did not recycle the fruit, but she began experimenting and discovered the value of second-use fruit, especially berries. This led to the brewery launching a Neonette picket-style beer program.
Don’t expect jamba juice. The brewery makes beer with less alcohol and then soaks the fruit, making the faint fruit sparkle. “We’re feeling more tingling and more tannins,” says Ghidray. “They will give you a completely different experience with the fruit.” Here are five great beers that feature second-use fruits. All of them are worth trying for the first time.
Second-use fruit beer
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Hopewell Brewing Neonite, 4.9% ABV
Pét-nat wine reported Neon sour ales’s Hopewell Brewing series, which are lavishly brewed and packaged in transparent glass bottles to better highlight the electric color of each version. To make a Neonette-inspired beer, the Chicago brewery makes a medium-strength table beer, then brews it with a previously used neon fruit like blackberry. [hopewellbrewing.com]
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Giant fermentation Funquette, 6.3% ABV
A Portland, Oregon brewery partnered with Stillwater Artisanal and St. Reginald Parish, an Oregon natural wine producer, for this picket-inspired refinery. The Funquette is made by pairing just pressed pineapple pomace with seasonal sauce with aged barrel inoculated with wild yeast and a little fresh plant, aka high sugar broth that becomes beer. The fermented result is a sparkling liquid, and the slicing acidity is gently balanced with a small fruity sweetness reminiscent of a ripe melon. [giganticbrewing.com]
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Threes fermentation Thought Experience Peach, 4.8% ABV
For thought experiment series, Brooklyn’s Threes takes a food-friendly table beer and spends it on fruits that were previously used in other beers, such as blueberries and cherries. The fruits add color and flavor, creating graceful and colorful refreshments reminiscent of sparkling wine. This peachy version (the fruit that was previously used in oak sauce) would make the perfect lunch beer, low enough in alcohol that you can crush the entire bottle. [threesbrewing.com]
Modern times The cooling area is 3.8% ABV
In pursuit of the perfect poolside beer, the San Diego brewery has popped an unconventional Belgian beer made from wood with “Mount Frikine” of Zenfandel grapes and Petit Serra for further use. Modern times then added de-airless water to bring down alcohol to a positively breakable 3.8 percent – less permeable than Broadlight. Think of this as a fruity beer. [moderntimesbeer.com]
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Grimm Artisan Alice Little Thief 3% ABV
The Brooklyn brewery is big at recycling grains and fruits. For example, Seconds is a mild, dark, low-alcohol wine that is fermented with the grains originally used to make strong imperial stems, while the spent skins and stems of Merlot grapes used to make sour barrel-life beer were reused for Little Thief. The refreshing sourness of this Berliner weisse style makes a good start or end to any meal, or any time of the day. [grimmales.com]
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